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Small Plane Crash Near Glenwood Springs Kills Family of Four

A family
of four from Fort Collins, Colorado was killed when the private, single-engine
plane they were in crashed north of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, on September
17, 2017. Weather conditions delayed search efforts to find the downed
aircraft, but once emergency personnel reached the site, they realized there
were no survivors. Now, their loved ones are left to pick up the pieces as
investigators determined what
caused the small plane to crash.

Cirrus
SR22 Plane Bound for Moab, Utah

Reports
indicate the Makepeace family (a husband, wife and twin 10-year-old children)
departed from Northern Colorado Regional Airport in Loveland in their privately
owned Cirrus SR22 with plans to travel to Moab, Utah. Jeff Makepeace, the
husband and father of the family, piloted the plane.

It is
not clear what time the plane left the runway at Northern Colorado Regional
that Friday, but the aircraft was not far from Baxter Peak, near Rifle,
Colorado, when it lost radar contact at approximately 10:00 p.m.

The
Garfield County Sheriff's Office received word of the disappearance, and Civil
Air Patrol and Classic Air were asked to assist with an aerial search. Heavy
low-hanging clouds, however, prevented the aerial search from beginning
immediately, and officials didn't discover the crash site until 11:37 a.m. the
following day. The site was spotted by air, and crews were able to land nearby,
allowing them to confirm that there were no survivors. The Garfield County
Sheriff's Office said, "a large debris field was identified" at the
site.

Officials
say the crash site is located about 15 miles north of Glenwood Springs.

Reports
from The Aspen Times say that the
weather in Glenwood Springs was poor the evening of the crash and that
lightning had delayed Glenwood High's football game that night by an hour. A
separate 9News report says that radar from Friday night indicated thunderstorms
in the entire stretch the Cirrus SR22 flew from Fort Collins to Glenwood
Springs.

Greg
Feith, an aviation analyst for 9News, questioned the Makepeace's decision to
depart when they did.

"Why did they have to leave at 8:00 o'clock
Friday night, single engine aircraft over the Rocky Mountains?" Feith said in a statement for 9News. "Because those combination of factors is
really a prescription for disaster, especially if you have inexperienced
pilots."

Makepeace
Held a Pilot's License Since Spring

Caleb
Makepeace, Jeff Makepeace's brother, said in
an interview with The Denver Post that Jeff Makepeace had earned his
pilot's license this year, and FAA records indicate that he obtained it on
March 1, 2017.

He owned
the Cirrus SR22 that the family was flying to Moab in at the time of the crash.

Fort
Collins’ Makepeace Family On Board When Plane Went Down

The
surviving relatives of the Makepeace family have identified them as the
deceased and issued a statement lamenting their passing. They asked for privacy
as they struggle to cope with their loss.

Forty-seven-year-old
Jeff Makepeace owned Lind's Plumbing and Heating, and his wife, 45-year-old
Jennifer Makepeace, was a homemaker. The couple had a set of twin 10-year-olds:
Addison, a daughter, and Benjamin, a son. All
four family members were on board the plane, as well as the family dog.

Jeff was
born in Naples, New York, and Jennifer in Fontana, California. They had been
married for 10 years. Caleb Makepeace said they were a fitting couple.

"[Jennifer]
was very outgoing, a good match for Jeff, because she was adventurous," he
said in an interview with The Denver Post."If he wanted to go
climb a mountain, she was right there with him."

Caleb
Makepeace said the twins, who had turned 10 not long before the accident, were
opposites of sort, with Benjamin being mechanically inclined and always on the
go, while Addison was an "old soul" who enjoyed watching "Little
House on the Prairie" and baking.

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